Understanding the Zone and How to Access it with Dr Michael Lardon

Golf Science Lab, sister site to Golf in the Life of, is kicking off another season of podcasts focused on the brain and mental performance. Check out the first episode of season 2 on the zone below.

The Golf Science Lab is dedicated to documenting what’s actually going on in the world of golf science and how it applies to learning and practicing golf.

FOCUS ON THE THINGS THAT YOU CAN CONTROL.

That’s why Dr Lardon developed a mental scorecard to help you commit to something you can control and put yourself into the best position possible to be in the zone.

There’s this old Zen saying, “You want to be in the gap between two thoughts.”

It satiates that primal need to rate yourself, to judge yourself, but it does it in the way that you have the capacity to be in 100% control of.

You score yourself on those three phases for every shot you hit during a round, and you end up with a percentage that represents your mental score. If you play a par-4 and make bogey, 5 is your physical score. But if you successfully go through the three phases of your routine for each of the five shots, your mental score is 5/5, or 100 percent. The top Tour players in the world routinely score in the high 90s. The difference between winning a major and keeping your card is about 7 or 8 percentage points—five or six shots per round with less than full concentration. The club champion at your course would probably score in the high 60s or low 70s.